Darius Rice Scores 44 in Loss

June 13--AL HALA ended a nine-year finals drought last night as they punched their ticket to this year's Zain Bahrain Basketball League championship series with an 87-81 win over Manama.

American professional Patrick Simpson had 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to spearhead the victors. He scored eight in the final five minutes of the game when Hala took the lead for good en route to completing the two-game sweep of their heavily favoured rivals in their Golden Square semi-final.

Manama's Darius Rice lit up the scoreboard for 44 points, but his fine individual effort was not enough to lift his team. He was limited to a string of tightly contested shots down the stretch.

Hala will now play for the league title for the first time since 2002, when they were ousted by Manama. They will face the winner of the other final four head-to-head between Muharraq and defending champions Al Ahli, which is headed to a third and decisive game on Wednesday.


(americanchronicle.com)